Lindsey Vonn Drops Out Of Sochi

America's Favorite Skier Is Out Of the 2014 Olympics

Unfortunately, the skeptics were right and Vonn couldn’t recover in time to defend the gold medal she won at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The athlete’s nightmare strikes again. This time, gold medalist Lindsey Vonn said she won’t be able to compete in next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi due to recurring issues from a major knee injury — a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

"I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level," said the 59-time World Cup race winner to Today.

Vonn had been battling to get back to full strength after she tore her ACL and medial collateral ligament (MCL) 11 months ago. But, despite another setback, Vonn was toting to the media and on Facebook that she was ready to compete. When Branden Peters interviewed her last month, she responded to the criticism:

"I feel like a lot of people have doubted me since my injury. I have had a lot of injuries, but this is definitely the biggest that I've had and the surgery and rehab process has taken a very long time. I feel like people just don’t expect me to come back from it so I think they're surprised that I'm out here before the races, saying that I'm 100%."

Unfortunately, the skeptics were right, and Vonn couldn’t recover in time to defend the gold medal she won at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Vonn’s injury is all too familiar for anyone who plays sports. The ACL is the ligament in your knee that prevents forward shifting of your lower leg (tibia) from the thigh bone (femur). Tears usually happen when an athlete twists their knee excessively while flexing and jumping or cutting to the side. ACL injuries occur in most professional sports, including soccer, football, hockey, tennis, and, of course, downhill skiing. Studies have shown that young female ski racers are more susceptible to ACL tears than men, and women generally suffer four to six times as many ACL injuries as men when doing the same sports. This is apparently due to core strength and stability, so whether you are male or female you need to be working on those planks!

While an ACL injury used to mean the automatic end to a pro career, rehab techniques have changed the fate of some lucky athletes in the past few years. Players like the NBA’s Baron Davis and Kyle Lowry suffered ACL tears early in their careers and bounced back better than ever. Two recent injuries in the NFL — to Wes Welker in 2009 and Adrian Peterson in 2011 — saw near-miraculous recoveries to full form. So while Vonn won’t be able to complete in this year’s Olympics, you can’t count her out for the future just yet.